was made, by persons who
are total strangers to him.

"On being made acquainted with the circumstances, the executors at once
applied to me. I could give them no positive information--for my uncle
never consulted me on matters of business. But I felt in honor bound to
tell them, that during the last six months of his life, the admiral had
occasionally let fall expressions of impatience in my hearing, which
led to the conclusion that he was annoyed by a private responsibility of
some kind. I also mentioned that he had imposed a very strange condition
on me--a condition which, in spite of his own assurances to the
contrary, I was persuaded could not have emanated from himself--of
marrying within a given time (which time has now expired), or of not
receiving from him a certain sum of money, which I believed to be the
same in amount as the sum bequeathed to him in my cousin's will. The
executors agreed with me that these circumstances gave a color of
probability to an otherwise incredible story; and they decided that
a search should be instituted for the Secret Trust, nothing in the
slightest degree resembling this same Trust having been discovered, up
to that time, among the admiral's papers.

"The search (no trifle in such a house as this) has now been in full
progress for a week. It is superintended by both the executors, and by
my uncle's lawyer, who is personally, as well as professionally, known
to Mr. Loscombe (Mrs. Noel Vanstone's solicitor), and who has been
included in the proceedings at the express request of Mr. Loscombe
himself. Up to this time, nothing whatever has been found. Thousands and
thousands of letters have been examined, and not one of them bears the
remotest resemblance to the letter we are looking for.

"Another week will bring the search to an end. It is only at my express
request that it will be persevered with so long. But as the admiral's
generosity has made me sole heir to everything he possessed, I feel
bound to do the fullest justice to the interests of others, however
hostile to myself those interests may be.

"With this view, I have not hesitated to reveal to the lawyer a
constitutional peculiarity of my poor uncle's, which was always kept a
secret among us at his own request--I mean his tendency to somnambulism.
I mentioned that he had been discovered (by the housekeeper and his old
servant) walking in his sleep, about three weeks before his death, and
that the part of the house in w